Home Office

Overseas Students: EU Nationals

lord beith: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether former higher education students who are EU nationals who apply for permanent residence in the UK are required to have held comprehensive private health insurance during the time during which they were in higher education; and if so, whether students from EU countries are notified of the existence of such a requirement when, or before, they begin their courses of study.

baroness williams of trafford: EU citizens and their family members have the right to enter, live and acquire permanent residence in other Member States when certain conditions are met, as set out in EU law. This includes a requirement to hold comprehensive sickness insurance where they have been exercising their Treaty rights as students and later rely on such periods to qualify for permanent residence. Guidance on the conditions for exercising Treaty rights as a student has always been publicly available to EU nationals. This can currently be found from page 21 onwards of the guidance on ‘qualified persons’ available on the UKGOV website via the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/european-economic-area-nationals-qualified-personsThe guidance is also attached to this answer.



EEA Qualified Persons
(PDF Document, 239.32 KB)

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Nuclear Fusion: Research

baroness featherstone: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the fusion research programme at the Culham Centre will continue to be funded following the UK's departure from the EU.

lord prior of brampton: The UK is a world leader in fusion research and development (R&D) and we have no intention of compromising this following the government’s decision to withdraw from the Euratom Treaty. We fully recognise the importance of international collaboration in fusion research and the UK’s key role in these efforts. Maintaining and building on our world-leading fusion expertise and securing alternative routes into the international fusion R&D projects such as the Joint European Torus (JET) project at the Culham Centre will be a priority. Government is working closely with the UK Atomic Energy Authority on ways to achieve this.

Regional Growth Fund

lord allen of kensington: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have for future funding rounds of the Regional Growth Fund; and whether they expect bids to be open to public and private sector organisations.

lord prior of brampton: Following the 2015 Spending Review no future rounds of the Regional Growth Fund are proposed.

Regional Growth Fund

lord allen of kensington: To ask Her Majesty’s Government which Local Enterprise Partnerships (1) applied for, and (2) were successful in receiving, funds from the Regional Growth Fund in each of the six funding rounds.

lord prior of brampton: The following Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) have received awards from the Regional Growth Fund: Black Country LEPCoast to Capital LEPCornwall & Isles of Scilly LEPCoventry and Warwickshire LEPCumbria LEPD2N2 Local Enterprise PartnershipEast Riding Enterprise PartnershipGreater Birmingham and Solihull LEPGreater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership, New Anglia LEP (1 bid, 3 partners)Greater Lincolnshire LEP and Humber LEPGreater Manchester LEPHumber LEPLancashire LEPLeeds City Region LEPLeicester & Leicestershire Enterprise PartnershipLiverpool City Region LEPNew Anglia Local Enterprise PartnershipNorth East LEPNorthamptonshire LEPSheffield City Region LEPSolent LEPStoke & Staffs LEPTees Valley Unlimited Local Enterprise PartnershipThe MarchesWest of England LEPWorcestershire LEP

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Gaza: Egypt

lord hylton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what efforts they are making to ensure the re-opening the Rafah Crossing in Gaza, at least for medical cases; and what means of international verification of its re-opening are available.

baroness anelay of st johns: We continue to call on the government of Egypt to show maximum flexibility in opening the Rafah Crossing into Gaza to help facilitate travel in and out of Gaza. We are concerned about the closure of the Rafah crossing and its impact, particularly on urgent medical and other priority cases in Gaza. The crossing has been mostly closed since October 2014.

Gaza

lord hylton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the report published by the UN Conference on Trade and Development on 1 September 2015, what international planning, if any, is underway to prevent the Gaza Strip becoming uninhabitable by 2020.

baroness anelay of st johns: The UK remains deeply concerned by the situation in Gaza and the report’s warning that Gaza could become uninhabitable by 2020. UK aid has supported economic development, provision of basic services, and enabled reconstruction through support to the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism. However, as the report makes clear, aid alone cannot solve the problems in Gaza. We welcome Israel’s decision in 2015 to increase the water supply to Gaza, as well as other commitments which permit the construction of essential energy infrastructure. Improvements in energy and water provision are essential to improve the daily lives of the people living in Gaza. The UK Government frequently stresses to both parties the importance that these commitments are implemented quickly, and continues to press for a sustainable political solution for Gaza which will address Israel’s legitimate security concerns whilst opening up movement and access.The UK remains committed to supporting vulnerable Gazans. Our support includes humanitarian work such as funding for basic service delivery and development programming such as working with the private sector. The Programme Examination being conducted by the UK Government will confirm the best mix of programmes going forwards, while ensuring maximum impact and value for money for the UK taxpayer.

Department of Health

Hospital Beds

lord porter of spalding: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what analysis they have commissioned to assess the number of delayed transfers of care by council area in the context of population size; and how many successful discharges there have been in each of those areas from hospitals to further NHS or social care services.

lord o'shaughnessy: NHS Digital publishes annually the average daily rate of delayed transfers of care from National Health Service hospitals in England per 100,000 local authority population aged 18 years and over. Rates are shown separately for all delays, and for delays attributable to social care, the National Health Service, and jointly to social care and the NHS.The most recently published data are for 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016 and are attached due to the size of the data.Information is not collected centrally on the number of successful discharges by council area. In 2015-16, there were 16.5 million finished discharged episodes of NHS commissioned care from hospitals in England.



Delayed transfer of care 2015-16 data
(Excel SpreadSheet, 54.16 KB)

Hepatitis

baroness randerson: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O’Shaughnessy on 27 January (HL4700), on what estimation or data the Operational Delivery Network run rates were based, and whether this data will be made available.

lord o'shaughnessy: NHS England is funding access to new hepatitis C treatments in accordance with guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), apportioned to local Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) based on estimated local health needs. The numbers in the NICE costing template have been used to estimate a progressive rollout, starting with the treatment run rate of 10,000 patients in 2016/17.Public Health England has published an interactive template hepatitis C commissioning template for prevalence and treatment which has been used as the basis for apportioning treatment run rates based on the estimated hepatitis C virus prevalence at local authority level, mapped to ODNs. Manipulation of the template is required to derive the required information. A copy of this template is attached.



Hep C commissioning template for prevalence 
(Excel SpreadSheet, 111.68 KB)

Hospital Beds

lord blencathra: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people who are occupying hospital beds, despite being fit and well enough to be discharged, have been doing so for (1) between one and three months, (2) between three and six months, or (3) six months or more.

lord o'shaughnessy: The statistics published by NHS England on the number of patients occupying hospital beds whose discharge was delayed on the last Thursday of each month do not include any information about the lengths of stay of these patients.

Prescriptions

lord bradshaw: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O’Shaughnessy on 19 January (HL4501), whether the Answer also applies to the Automated Repeat Prescription Service offered by some high street pharmacies; and what checks there are to ensure that this does not lead to over-ordering.

lord o'shaughnessy: My Written Answer of 19 January applies also to repeatable prescriptions provided through the Electronic Prescription Service.Any service provided by a pharmacist including ordering prescriptions on behalf of patients, should be carried out in accordance with their professional code of conduct, ethics and performance and the standards for registered pharmacies – both regulated by the General Pharmaceutical Council. This would include obtaining all the information they require to assess a person’s needs in order to give safe and effective treatment and to obtain consent for professional services they provide.

NHS: Negligence

lord shinkwin: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many payments for wrongful birth, other than cases of failed sterilisation or vasectomy, were made by the NHS Litigation Authority to parents of children with Down's syndrome in each of the past five years; and what was the total cost of each payment.

lord shinkwin: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much the NHS Litigation Authority has paid in total since 1990 to parents of babies with disabilities who claimed that they would have had an abortion had they known earlier that their child would have a disability.

lord shinkwin: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many successful claims for wrongful birth, other than cases of failed sterilisation or vasectomy, have been made since 1990; what was the total amount of compensation awarded by the NHS Litigation Authority in each case; and for what specific disabilities was compensation awarded in successful claims.

lord o'shaughnessy: There are two successful claims for wrongful birth recorded in the NHS Litigation Authority (NHS LA) Claims Management System that relate to a child being born with Downs Syndrome in the period requested. The damages paid to date relating to these two cases are £7,454,200, with the total payments over the lifetime of the claims calculated to reach £10,457,242.Data is not held on the NHS LA Claims Management System on how much the NHS LA has paid out in total since 1990 to parents of babies with disabilities who claimed that they would have had an abortion had they known earlier that their child would have a disability. To obtain the data, a manual review of the case files would be required which would incur disproportionate cost. Data would only be available from April 1995 when the NHS LA was established, as before that trusts dealt with their clinical negligence claims locally.There have been a total of 156 successful wrongful birth claims; this figure does not include failed vasectomy or sterilisation claims. To date, these claims have resulted in payments of damages of £114,264,308 with the total payments over the lifetime of the claims calculated to reach £123,894,773. It is not possible to provide data on the specific disabilities for which compensation was awarded in these cases without a manual review of the case files which would incur disproportionate cost.

NHS: Negligence

lord shinkwin: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact that payments for wrongful birth, other than cases of failed sterilisation or vasectomy, have on people living with disabilities, and public perception regarding the value of the lives of people with disabilities.

lord o'shaughnessy: The Department has not made any assessment of the impact of payments for wrongful birth on people living with disabilities or on public perception of the value of the lives of people with disabilities. We are committed to ensure that everyone with a disability is supported to live their life free from discrimination, and to creating opportunities for disabled people to fulfil their potential.

Congenital Abnormalities

lord shinkwin: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many fatal foetal abnormalities were diagnosed in each of the last five years.

lord shinkwin: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many fatal foetal abnormalities were diagnosed after 24 weeks of a pregnancy in each of the last five years.

lord o'shaughnessy: This information is not collected centrally.

NHS: Drugs

baroness tonge: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the total cost to the NHS of purchasing generic drugs from the Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva in the last financial year.

lord o'shaughnessy: Information on the cost of generic drugs supplied by Teva is not collected centrally but supplies from Israeli company Teva represent a significant and important part of National Health Service medicines provision. We estimate that the total reimbursement cost of these medicines dispensed in the community may be in the region of £0.5 billion. This does not take account of the margin that pharmacies earn on the medicines they dispense. This margin is subsequently taken into account as contributing towards the target level of funding for community pharmacy as part of the community pharmacy contractual framework.Israel plays an important role in helping supply medicines for the NHS. Some 100 million prescription items for medicines used in the community in England are estimated to come from companies based in Israel. Teva also funds clinical development in the United Kingdom, including research into dementia.

Mental Patients: Death

baroness tyler of enfield: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the increase in unexpected patient deaths reported by England’s mental health trusts; and what steps they are taking to reduce the number of such deaths.

lord o'shaughnessy: The Government wants to make the National Health Service the safest, most transparent healthcare system in the world - the first step towards this ambition is to collect safety data more reliably. The level of reported harm has increased as a result of our very deliberate improvements in the way such events are recorded and investigated.The Government has introduced requirements for the reliable reporting of any safety incidents, all of which should be investigated fully at a local level then reported to NHS England.From April 2017, all NHS trusts and foundation trusts will be required to publish numbers of avoidable deaths and how they are improving care.

Hospital at Home Scheme

baroness masham of ilton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there are any plans in place to increase investment in technology to support an expansion of hospital at home schemes.

lord o'shaughnessy: The National Health Service’s plans to improve services locally, including any plans to increase investment in technology to support an expansion of programmes such as the hospital at home schemes, are set out in local plans, including Sustainability and Transformation Plans. The plans have been published online and are available locally. Information about individual contracts and service lines is not held centrally.

Electronic Cigarettes

lord blencathra: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the UCL report Nicotine, Carcinogen, and Toxin Exposure in Long-Term E-Cigarette and Nicotine Replacement Therapy Users: A Cross-sectional Study which found that people who switch to vaping have 97.5 per cent lower levels of NNA in their system, whether they will encourage people to switch from smoking cigarettes to vaping.

lord blencathra: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the finding in the UCL report Nicotine, Carcinogen, and Toxin Exposure in Long-Term E-Cigarette and Nicotine Replacement Therapy Users: A Cross-sectional Study that vaping is much safer than smoking cigarettes and can help people switch from cigarette smoking.

lord o'shaughnessy: The Government has been and continues to be clear that vaping is substantially less harmful than continuing to smoke, and that the best thing a smoker can do for their heath is to stop smoking completely. This study supports the Government’s policy approach, demonstrating that to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals significantly, those smokers who chose to vape should substitute smoking with vaping entirely.

Health Services: Prisons

lord beecham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether Health and Wellbeing Boards have oversight of, or involvement in, the provision of health services in prison; and if not, who does.

lord o'shaughnessy: Health and Wellbeing Boards’ role and responsibilities do not extend to cover the provision of health services in prison.From April 2013, responsibility for commissioning all healthcare services for prisoners, including drug and alcohol services, rests with NHS England.

Ministry of Defence

Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft

lord campbell of pittenweem: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of the US about the future of the F35 programme, following comments made by President Trump about the viability of the programme.

earl howe: The Ministry of Defence is in regular discussion with its counterparts in the United States' Government about all aspects of the F-35 programme. The United Kingdom welcomes the recently announced reductions in programme costs and remains fully committed to the delivery of F-35 capability as announced in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Type 45 Destroyers

the marquess of lothian: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there are any issues with the noise levels emitted underwater by the Navy's Type 45 destroyers; and how far away underwater the Type 45 can be heard by a submarine.

earl howe: The Type 45 destroyers were designed and built primarily as highly capable air defence destroyers but are configured and equipped for a range of operations, including as part of a maritime task group, where they would operate alongside anti-submarine warfare frigates.The level of underwater radiated noise of the Type 45 destroyers is in accordance with the design of the ships.I am withholding further information as its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.